Nine out of ten graduates from four-year universities in China fall short of a starting salary of 1.9 million won per month. China, which has a fall semester, produced the largest number of university graduates this summer, but with very few high-paying jobs offering salaries above 1.9 million won, there is a severe shortage of positions to accommodate over 12 million new graduates, raising concerns that the unemployment rate will soar from the second half of the year.
According to a recent report published by Mycos, a higher education data analysis organization in China, more than half of four-year university graduates are earning less than 6,000 yuan (about 1.16 million won). The average monthly salary for graduates in 2024, six months after graduation, is 6,199 yuan (about 1.2 million won), with 57.8% earning below 6,000 yuan, and 23.2% earning between 6,000 and 8,000 yuan (about 1.55 million won). Only 9.3% earn between 8,000 and 10,000 yuan (about 1.93 million won), and 9.7% earn over 10,000 yuan.
High-paying jobs were centered around technology roles in semiconductors and software. The three highest-paying job categories were integrated circuit (IC) engineers (8,459 yuan, about 1.64 million won), internet developers (8,245 yuan, about 1.6 million won), and industrial internet engineers (8,030 yuan, about 1.56 million won). Other roles included game planners, technical sales engineers, software quality assurance (QA) and test engineers, semiconductor processing technicians, project managers, software developers, and big data engineers, all securing monthly salaries exceeding 7,000 yuan (about 1.36 million won).
These occupations are all categorized under electronic information engineering and software development fields, classified as engineering disciplines. Only 10% of all graduates find employment in such high-paying jobs, yet the Chinese government has been actively promoting policies to nurture engineering fields, estimating that the proportion of engineering graduates among university graduates exceeds 45%. This is a higher percentage compared to Korea and the United States, where it stands between 20% and 30%.
However, as economic downturns cause corporations to reduce hiring, many of them find themselves lost. A significant number of graduates who have not secured high-paying jobs as engineers or developers are resorting to low-wage subcontractors or struggling to find work. According to a employment report from Peking University, over 60% of engineering graduates are engaged in jobs unrelated to their major.
According to The Washington Post (WP), Crystal (a pseudonym), a graduate of Peking University, one of China's top universities, graduated in the top 10% of her class to secure a job at a leading tech or financial corporation, participated in a research competition hosted by the American consulting firm Bain & Company, and interned at four tech firms, including ByteDance and Xiaohongshu (小红书). However, she failed to find employment. Ultimately, she chose to pursue a master's degree, delaying her job search by two years.
As such, not only high-paying positions but also the overall threshold in the job market is increasingly rising. In China, cases of obtaining master's and doctoral degrees only to compete for low-skilled positions like entry-level administrative roles, gas meter readers, and university dormitory management are becoming more common.
Amidst all this, over 12.22 million graduates—the highest number ever—were produced this summer in China, which is the graduation season. According to China's National Bureau of Statistics, the youth unemployment rate for those aged 16 to 24 dropped to 14.5% last month, the lowest in a year. However, since many university students not counted in the unemployment figures are entering the job market, there is a significant likelihood of an increase in the unemployment rate again. In fact, last year, the youth unemployment rate fell to 13.2% in June but rose to 17.1% in July and 18.8% in August.
WP noted, "In China, there is a saying that a master's degree is the 'new bachelor's degree.' As employment becomes more challenging, graduates from prestigious Chinese universities are flocking to graduate school," adding that, "In the early 1990s, 100% of bachelor's graduates could find jobs, but now master's students are treated the same as the former bachelor's graduates, and current bachelor's students are regarded as equivalent to vocational school students back then."